Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1887-07-22
The Boston and Albany Complaints
Against the National Despatch Line
to be Heard in Rutland.

and Albany Railroad company VS.. the BOs-
ton and Lowell Railroad company ct al
has been set down for the first of Sep
tombcr 1887, at 10 a. M, at the United
States Court house in Rutland 10y the
! inter state commerce commission. Owing
to the great public interest attaching to this
case or these cases rather, the following
abstracts of the plcadings are given out:
The complaint in the first proceeding al
lcges that the Boston and Lowell Railroad
company. Concord Railroad company
Northern Railroad company, the Central
Vermont Railroad company, and the Grand
Trunk Railway company have issued schcd-
ulcs Of Joint rates under the name of the Ma
tonal Despatch Line; that under these
schedules the rates from Boston to Detroit
Michigan for the six classes of freight re-
spcctively. are: 81 A. 30. 81, 90. Is: and
Montreal Canada. a., 4O. 30. %, 20. 49, that
rates from Boston to St Adams, Vt. are
60. 30, 40, 81, pa II. the result being that said
| Boston and Lowell. Concord, Northern and
Central Vermont Railroad companies main
| tain higher rates to st. Adams and other in
tcrmcdiate points than are made by said
National Despatch Line to more distant
points on the same line in the same direc-
ton.
The answers of the defendants admit the
rates to he as stated. and in justification
thereof they allege that said National Des-
patch Line is n line of cars running from
Boston to points in Canada and the West
ern States. via the Grand Trunk line hay
inc its principal Office in Boston, that it
soicits freight for transportation to points
west of st. Johns in Canada but not to st.
Adams or other point, south of St Johns.
| Canada and issues its own bills of ladng and
| u. bn 1pfabIunfs ba+
the Joint tariff of the National Despatch
Line constitute an arrangement for con
tnuous carriage within the meaning of the
| first section of the inter St ste commerce law
but if it does. they alcgc that the joint tariff
| from Boston to st. Adams makes a who'll,
| different line from the one made bv the
| Joint tarir of the National DeSliat' n Line
within the meaning of the fourth section
of said law They say that the rates from
| Boston and intermeiiat points to St Al
| bans are reasonable that nobody along the
| line is dissatisfied with the rates made: that
the Boston and Albany Railroad company
| is not interested therein; that the Central
| Vermont Railroad company runs through
SparSely settled country: that the local traffic
thereon is small: that it was constructed at
great expense through an uneven country
with high grades: that the road has been
forecloSed and reorganiezd and the original
capital put into the construction of the same
has been lost: that if said road was com
PEELED to depend ON local trafiic,it could not
pay its expenses and interest on its bonded
debt. to say nothing of the stocks of the
road as it has been recognized; that even
at present rates they make something over
expenses out of through traffic: that their
road has been brought into high state of
Of 1,,,,, 81,
traffic; that the additional expense of doing
through traffic as compared with local
traffic is small in degree; that their road
is the same whether the traffic is local and
small or large by reason of through bust
'.eSS: that the small profit which they make
out of the through business is quite as i'm
portant to them as the profit on the local
business by reason of the volume of the
through traffic as compared with the local
traffic; that the volume of business from
Boston to st. Adams iStnot one-twentieth
part of what it is To points beyond there
| westward.
| They say that the rates made by the Ma
tiona Despatch Line to Montreal and Detroit
| are fixed by competition and state the vari-
GUS competing routes to those points. They
| claim that the circumstances and conditions
under which traffic is taken from Boston to
| St Adams is wholly diSsimilar from what
| it is in respect to traffic taken west of st.
Adams to points of competition; that the
rates to Montreal and Detroit are made
| from necessity; that the motive of the petit
TONER in filing its petition is TO break down
one of its principal competitors for through
business from Boston to Detroit and other
points i'll the West. That they have acted
in good faith and have given the best con
under the advice of counsel. and if they have
erred they will ask to file their petition to
| be relieved from the OF GRAFTON of the fourth
section of said act.
The complaint in the other case alleges
that the said Boston and Lowell Railroad
company, Northern Railroad company
Central Vermont Railroad company and the
Ogdensburyh and Lake Champain Rail
Dad company have made an arrangement
by which the steamship line operated by the
latter railroad company has issued a tariff
from Boston to lake ports in the United
States ut n less rate than is charged from
Boston to OgdenSburgh and other points ON
the same line at a shorter distance from
Boston in the same direction said rates be
ing from Boston to Cleveland. Detroit and
Port Huron for the six CLASSES of freight
respectively, Al, Sc, %, 20, II. IA, and to
Milwaukee and Chicago, A, 80, 81, %, 10,
l6, while from Boston to Ogdcn>burgh they
are 90, 80 -. 40. 81, L.
The answers of the defendants say that
the line of steamers referred to is called the
Central Vermont Line of Steamers and they
have joint tariff with said roads entirely
different and Independent from the one be
tween the roads themselves from Boston Ia
Ogdenbsurg: that said line of steamers take
traffic only from points west of Ogdensburg
that the rates are rs stated in the complaint,
but they insist that said joint tariffs do not
constitute an arrangement from a COntinu-
Gus carriage or shipment within the mean
ing of the first section of the inter State com
merce law; but if they do, then they do not
constitute the same lines within the meaning
of the fourth section of said law, They
further say that the rates from Boston to
Ogdeusburg are entirely reasonable, that
shippers do not complain nor do the public
at Ogdensburg. They state similar reasons
for the making of the OgdenShuru rate aS